Seite - 90 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Band 06/01

male protagonist. Shahid (Martyr, Hansal Mehta, IN 2012), the true story of an ac- tivist Muslim lawyer, is an exceptional exception. When superstar Muslims like the Khans do play Muslim parts, their loyalty to Mother India is so clearly stressed, or their characters are so over-the-top evil, or their characterization is so at odds with their carefully crafted public personae that it is simply impossible to confuse the actors with the roles they play. Note, for example, Aamir Khan’s portrayal of Islamic terrorist/Pakistani secret agent Rehan Khan in Fanaa. Then there is the case of the “fourth Khan”, Saif Ali Khan, playing Ehsaan Kahn in Kurbaan (fig. 2). In this film, an unsuspecting young American Hindu woman named Avantika (played by Karee- na Kapoor) falls in love with the middle-class Muslim academic from Mumbai now living in Delhi. The two marry and decide to move to the United States, with Ehsaan quickly finding a job teaching “Islam in the Modern World” as they move into a New York suburb with a large South Asian population. Avantika becomes pregnant, but soon discovers that her husband is part of a terrorist plot in which she is forced to participate. Avantika becomes a victim of their scheming, as she uncovers that their marriage was part of an elaborate plot. Ehsaan, whose real name is Khalid, used her to legally emigrate to the West in order to join a terrorist cell. Suffice it to say, in the end dharma noticeably obtains. Dying of a bullet wound on the floor of the subway, Ehsaan professes to Avantika that he fell in love with her despite himself. Their love was real, but Ehsaan as adhārmik exemplar must die. Justice is restored as Avantika is left to put the broken pieces of her life back together. And so we have transitioned from the figure of the dutiful Muslim sidekick of the pre-1990s to the anti-hero Ehsaan/Khalid in Kurbaan. In this new globalized world, where capital, terrorism, and fear can flow as one, we witness a shared American and Indian stereotype of the dangerous and omnipresent Muslim, rendered even more frightening by the fact that contemporary Muslim violence has become, given the participation of burka-clad terrorists, coeducational. In India women have long been associated with the health and integrity of the family unit, so it is especially noteworthy that not only does Avantika’s character become the unwitting victim and co-conspirator in an Islamist plot, but she is in fact pregnant with this Other. Chillingly, and reflective of Indian and American anxieties, the enemy is literally growing within. Of the actors mentioned, Aamir Khan has played the largest number of Muslim roles. By my count, Shahrukh Khan, arguably the most famous Indian actor of the last quarter century, has played a Muslim only four times over three decades in 90 films. So when he decides to play a Muslim role, that role is worthy of attention. In My Name Is Khan (Karan Johar, IN 2009), the main protagonist, played by Shahrukh, has a message for US President George W. Bush, whom he crosses the continental United States to meet. The message is simple: “My name is Khan and I am not a ter- Dharma and the Religious Other in Hindi Popular Cinema | 89www.jrfm.eu 2020, 6/1, 73–102